In his first year as head coach, Naperville North’s Andy Bax has his girls water polo team headed to the state tournament.

The Huskies, who have lost only once on the season compared to 30 victories, overwhelmed Lincoln-Way East 17-7 Tuesday in the Hinsdale Central Supersectional.

The Red Devils hosted both the boys and girls Elite Eight games. On the boys side, Brother Rice defeated Naperville North 14-4.

“This feels great,” said Bax. “The girls have worked hard, they’ve jelled together, they’re playing together, and they’re learning where everyone is going to be in the water.”

Naperville North exploded out of the gate, scoring seven of the first eight goals in the initial period.

Junior Ava Podkasik scored three of those opening goals, while twin sister Mia accounted for another. The Huskies led 7-2 after one quarter.

“This is huge,” said Mia Podkasik. “We’ve been waiting for this all year. We came in prepared, and our team just had the fire inside to win this game.

“Honestly, we’ve been grinding every day at practice. We have a motto called ‘good, better, best.’ It’s kind of where we play one game and we don’t look past that. Then we go on to the next game and just play hard and play fast.

“Every day we just grind, and that’s what gets us to where we are today.”

Lincoln-Way East got a spark to open the second quarter by scoring with 6:13 remaining, the goal coming from Lilly Brown, to cut into the Naperville North lead.

Then Naperville North’s Kat Pavlovich scored three of the next four tallies to extend the Huskies’ advantage, and they didn’t look back in the second half en route to the win.

The Huskies’ next game will be in the state semifinals at 7:45 p.m. Friday at Barrington. They’ll play Stevenson, which handed the Huskies their only defeat of the season on May 6, a tense 8-7 loss. The Patriots are also the three-time defending state champion.

Senior Teagan Murphy scored four goals for Lincoln-Way East. She’ll be continuing her water polo career at the next level after graduation, where she’ll compete for St. Mary’s of California. She’ll also be concentrating on her studies, with a goal of becoming a high school math teacher.

“I am just so proud of how this team came together this year,” Murphy said. “From where we started the season, we’ve grown so much. Being on this team is such an honor.”

The Griffins finished with a 21-10 record.

“Teagan is an extraordinary leader,” Lincoln-Way East coach Steve Anderson said of Murphy. “But the thing is, our team around her really showed what they can do. They showed that we have a lot of offensive firepower and a perimeter that’s just willing to shoot. And defensively, we really stepped up.”

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